Call the Midwife (series)
:This article is about the series. For information about the memoir by Jennifer Worth, visit Call the Midwife (book). Call the Midwife is a BBC period drama series about a group of nurse midwives working in the East End of London in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Plot The plot follows newly qualified midwife Jenny Lee, as well as the work of midwives and the nuns of Nonnatus House, a nursing convent and part of an Anglican religious order, coping with the medical problems in the deprived Poplar district of London's desperately poor East End in the 1950s. The Sisters and midwives carry out many nursing duties across the community. However, with between 80 and 100 babies being born each month in Poplar alone, the primary work is to help bring safe childbirth to women in the area and to look after their countless newborns. Cast and Characters Call the Midwife is based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, featuring narration – and an appearance in the 2014 Christmas Special – by Vanessa Redgrave as an older Jenny. * Jessica Raine as Nursing Sister Jennifer "Jenny" Lee (series 1–3) * Jenny Agutter as Sister Julienne * Pam Ferris as Sister Evangelina (series 1–5) * Judy Parfitt as Sister Monica Joan * Helen George as Nurse Beatrix "Trixie" Franklin * Bryony Hannah as Nurse Cynthia Miller (later Sister Mary Cynthia) (series 1–6) * Miranda Hart as Matron Camilla "Chummy" Fortescue-Cholmondeley-Browne (later Noakes) (series 1–4) * Laura Main as Sister Bernadette (later Nursing Sister Shelagh Turner) * Stephen McGann as Dr Patrick Turner * Cliff Parisi as Frederick "Fred" Buckle * Ben Caplan as Police Constable (later Sergeant) Peter Noakes (series 1–6) * Max Macmillan as Timothy Turner (series 3–; recurring series 2) * Dorothy Atkinson as Auxiliary Nurse Jane Sutton (series 2) * Emerald Fennell as Nurse Patience "Patsy" Mount (series 3–6; guest series 2) * Victoria Yeates as Sister Winifred (series 3–8) * Jack Ashton as the Revd Tom Hereward (series 4–7; recurring series 3) * Charlotte Ritchie as Nurse Barbara Gilbert (later Hereward) (series 4–7) * Linda Bassett as Nurse Phyllis Crane (series 4–present) * Kate Lamb as Nurse Delia Busby (series 5–6; recurring series 4) * Jennifer Kirby as Nurse Valerie Dyer (series 6–present) * Annabelle Apsion as Violet Buckle (series 7-; recurring series 4–6) * Leonie Elliott as Nurse Lucille Anderson (series 7–present) * Fenella Woolgar as Sister Hilda (series 8–present) * Ella Bruccoleri as Sister Frances (series 8–present) * Georgie Glen as Miss Higgins (recurring series 8–present) * Miriam Margolyes as Mother Mildred (recurring series 8–present) * Elsie Marquez as Sheryl Torpy Production The series was created by Heidi Thomas, originally based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth who worked with the Community of St. John the Divine, an Anglican religious order, at their convent in the East End in London. The order was founded as a nursing order in 1849. The show has extended beyond the memoirs to include new, historically sourced material. For the most part it depicts the day-to-day lives of the midwives and those in their local neighbourhood of Poplar, with certain historical events of the era having a direct or indirect effect on the characters and storylines. Such events include: the continuing effects of the post-World War II baby boom, post-war immigration and the 1948 founding of the National Health Service in the first series and beyond; the introduction of gas and air as a form of pain relief and unexploded ordnance in the second series; the Child Migrants Programme and the threat of nuclear warfare (including emergency response guidelines issued by local Civil Defence Corps) in the fourth series; and the effects of thalidomide as well as the introduction of the contraceptive pill in the fifth series. Call the Midwife achieved very high ratings in its first series, making it the most successful new drama series on BBC One since 2001. Since then, seven more series of eight episodes each have aired year-on-year, along with an annual Christmas special broadcast every Christmas Day since 2012. It is also broadcast in the United States on the PBS network, with the first series starting on 30 September 2012. In December 2015, the Director-General of the BBC Tony Hall announced the show had been commissioned for a 2016 Christmas special and a sixth series of another eight episodes to be broadcast in early 2017, taking the characters and plot into 1962. In March 2019, the BBC announced it had commissioned two further series and Christmas specials, through to an eleventh series in 2022, moving the plot into the late sixties. Critical reception for the show (in both the UK and the US) has been mostly positive, and the series has won numerous awards and nominations since its original broadcast. The show has also been praised for tackling a variety of topical subjects and contemporary social, cultural and economic issues, including local community, miscarriage and stillbirths, abortion and unwanted pregnancies, birth defects, poverty, illness and disease epidemics, prostitution, incest, religion and faith, racism and prejudice, alcoholism, disability, (then-illegal) homosexuality between men, lesbianism, female genital mutilation, and maternal, paternal, and romantic love.Category:Series